Dammit, why is it so much easier to write sad stories than good ones these days?
There's been another drop in the well of the economic disaster today. Starbucks, the biggest coffee chain in America, has announced that it will be laying off 6,700 people and closing numerous stores.
Additionally, the USPS announced today that it may have to cut back mail delivery by one day per week.
Also aircraft manufacturer Boeing will be laying off a large number of workers as well.
MSNBC reports:
Starbucks Corp. said Wednesday that it would cut as many as 6,700 jobs as it closes hundreds more stores and eliminates more positions at its corporate headquarters.
Faced with slowing demand for lattes and cappuccinos because of the recession, Starbucks plans to close 300 stores, including 200 in the United States, and eliminate about 6,000 store jobs. The company also plans to eliminate about 700 corporate jobs, including about 350 at its corporate headquarters in Seattle.
Starbucks is also reporting that its profit dropped 69 percent in its fiscal first quarter.
Additionally, Starbucks will no longer be matching the 401(k) contributions of its employees.
This comes on a day when the Postmaster General of the United States testified before the Senate that mail delivery may have to cut one day a week from its delivery schedule.
CNN Money reports:
Postmaster General John E. Potter told a U.S. Senate subcommittee he wanted to eliminate the requirement to deliver mail six days a week to every address in America.
If the recession continues to hammer at USPS revenue, six-day delivery may not be possible, Potter said. Federal law has mandated the six-day schedule since 1983.
In fiscal 2008, total mail volume fell by more than 9 billion pieces: 4.5 compared to the previous year, Potter said. And the agency suffered a greater-than-expected net loss of $2.8 billion last year, he added.
It looks increasingly likely that this will happen, which probably will coincide with a reduction of the USPS workforce. Since 2002, the USPS has reduced its workforce by more than 120,000 employees.
Good luck to the baristas at Starbucks, and here's hoping that the USPS won't have to lay off any more people.
UPDATE
DrSpalding points out that in addition to the Starbucks and USPS layoffs, aerospace giant Boeing has announced layoffs as well. The Seattle Times reports:
Boeing this year will cut about 6 percent of its workforce, roughly 10,000 jobs in all, company officials said today.
At least half of those will be in Washington state, including the 4,500 job cuts in the Commercial Airplanes unit that Boeing announced earlier this month.
The news came along with Boeing's quarterly earnings results, which also determined company incentive payments due next month. Though Boeing failed to meet pre-set profit goals, about 48,000 employees in the state — not including the Machinists — will receive six days' extra pay in mid-February, for a total of more than $97 million.
Like I said, I wish we were in a time where it wasn't so easy to find such bad news to report so easily, but in time, we'll get there again.